BRUINS NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Adam McQuaid has game up to speed

Tuesday

Veteran defenseman Adam McQuaid, who didn’t play for three months after breaking his fibula, didn’t need much time to get back to what he’s best at.

BOSTON -- Skilled players often need a little time to get their hands and head back up to speed when they return to play from injuries.

Out of necessity, that doesn’t apply as much to Adam McQuaid as it does to others.

The Bruins’ 31-year-old defenseman played his 13th game on Tuesday night since missing 36 with a broken right fibula. The big (6 feet, 4 inches, 212 pounds), physical veteran, who didn’t play between the Oct. 19 injury and his Jan. 17 return, didn’t need much time to find his game.

“You’re always chasing the game a little bit,” coach Bruce Cassidy said, “but Adam’s a pretty smart guy at understanding what he needs to do well, so he’s not going to try to get out of what makes him successful … defend, continue to work on a good first pass, play hard, be a good teammate.

“He understands that, so for him it’s maybe not as much catch-up as the skills guys, trying to find the pace of the game and make those little plays.”

Cassidy also listed “doing the dirty work” among McQuaid’s responsibilities. He has done quite a bit of that recently, logging 12 penalty minutes in a 6-1 win over the Rangers on Feb. 7 as the result of two fights with Cody McLeod, and 18 more minutes in Sunday’s 5-3 decision -- most of those because he attacked Damon Severson for blowing up B’s winger Brad Marchand on a play that led to Patrice Bergeron’s game-clinching empty-net goal.

Matt Grzelcyk, McQuaid’s 5-9, 174-pound rookie defense partner, appreciates McQuaid’s protective instincts. Last Thursday’s second fight with McLeod was McQuaid’s response to McLeod’s heavy hit on Matt Grzelcyk with less than five minutes to play.

“I obviously appreciate him stepping up for me,” Grzelcyk said. “He didn’t have to do that -- we were ahead by so much -- but he was willing to do it. I can’t thank him enough.”

Miller time again: Bob Miller was on the bubble when he attended Bruins training camp in 1977, and on a different bubble by the end of the season.

Miller, a Billerica native in his first pro season, was the last of 11 Bruins to hit the 20-goal mark in that 1977-78 season -- still an NHL record. The 20-goal group (minus Wayne Cashman, that team’s captain) and its coach, Don Cherry, was honored in a 40th anniversary celebration on Tuesday.

Miller, now 61 and living in Rhode Island, remembers the goal, which came with four seconds left in Game 79 of 80, an empty-netter that sealed a 3-1 victory at Maple Leaf Gardens on April 8, 1978.

“Probably the strangest goal I ever scored,” Miller said. “There was a delayed penalty, (Toronto) pulled the goalie … (but) they ended up putting another defenseman out there.

“(Gregg) Sheppard won the faceoff, it went to Schmautzie (Bobby Schmautz), he got it across to me. I was thinking about passing it back to Schmautzie, but I turned and fired, and luckily it went in.

“I’d like to say it was all I had, there was just a little space, but (the net) was unattended.”

Miller, who sandwiched a season with the U.S. Olympic team (1975-76) between two years at the University of New Hampshire, remembers the ‘77-78 season as much or more than the landmark goal -- a level he’d never reach again in an NHL career lasted through 1984-85.

“Being a kid growing up around here in the (Bobby) Orr era, watching some of the guys I ended up playing with -- Wayne Cashman, Don Marcotte -- the special thing was the way they embraced me,” Miller said. “I was a kid in camp without a contract, and they were so receiving of me. I’ll always remember that.”

Around the boards: Defenseman Kevan Miller missed his sixth, but perhaps final game with an upper body issue. He joined the team for Tuesday’s morning skate, wearing a non-contact jersey. “I fully anticipate he’ll go on the trip with us, but … that’s a few days away,” Cassidy said. The Bruins leave on Friday morning for a five-game trip that begins on Saturday night at Vancouver. … Rookie winger Anders Bjork (upper body) and winger Frank Vatrano (lower body) missed their seventh and fourth games, respectively. Neither one is skating.

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